Safaga and Hurghada, Egypt - Wednesday 11th April

Safaga and Hurghada, Egypt - Wednesday 11th April

Safaga Port - view from our cabin

Safaga is the second largest port in Egypt but not very pretty.  You would think that as tourism is the second largest source of income for the country (after the Suez Canal) there might be some attempt to clear up the rubbish,  and make places attractive but everywhere we went  - even miles from the town – there was rubbish dumped.  Lucky that the Pharaohs built such nice long-lasting attractions 3000 years ago or no-one would visit Egypt.

Desert View on road to Hurghada

The main reason to stop at Safaga on the Red Sea  is for people to make the 3.5 hour coach journey to Luxor to see the temples and Valley of the Kings.  We have seen all this on a Nile Cruise so decided not to make the trek.  Instead we opted for a day trip to Hurghada, 40 miles north,  which is a holiday destination that we had previously thought of visiting for some winter sun.  We were taken to a resort hotel and expected to go snorkelling over the reef as advertised in the tour guide – unfortunately at this particular hotel there was no reef and no fish – Keith swam quite a long way out on the instructions of some of the hotel staff but found nothing except jellyfish!  We are currently trying to get our money back!

Pool at the resort

Keith took this view

The journey to Hurghada showed numerous half-built hotels and apartments with no sign of any ongoing building activity – reminded us of Spain – it is sad to see this which must be the result of recession and people worried about the unstable political situation.  In the town itself there were lots of closed shops and not many people going to the ones that were open.  We ended up buying some shirts from one young man in an empty shop because we felt sorry for him!